I think this is a brilliant idea - can we assemble a commission of names, 
other academics, trade unionists, black activists, community activists,
but with a key role (jury?) of YOUNG PEOPLE? - could we get David Harvey
and maybe Mark Serwotka to call it?



> Harvey writes........"This is what the next grand commission of enquiry
> should address. Everyone, not just the rioters, should be held to account.
> Feral capitalism should be put on trial for crimes against humanity as
> well as for crimes against nature."
> ................why don't we start our own then?.
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: [log in to unmask]
> [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Allan A
> [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 16 August 2011 21:01
> To: RepublicanSocialistConvention
> Subject: Feral Capitalism Hits the Streets by David Harvey
>
> Feral Capitalism Hits the Streets
>
> “Nihilistic and feral teenagers” the Daily Mail called them: the crazy
> youths from all walks of life who raced around the streets mindlessly
> and desperately hurling bricks, stones and bottles at the cops while
> looting here and setting bonfires there, leading the authorities on a
> merry chase of catch-as-catch-can as they tweeted their way from one
> strategic target to another.
>
> The word “feral” pulled me up short. It reminded me of how the
> communards in Paris in 1871 were depicted as wild animals, as hyenas,
> that deserved to be (and often were) summarily executed in the name of
> the sanctity of private property, morality, religion, and the family.
> But then the word conjured up another association: Tony Blair
> attacking the “feral media,” having for so long been comfortably
> lodged in the left pocket of Rupert Murdoch only later to be
> substituted as Murdoch reached into his right pocket to pluck out
> David Cameron.
>
> There will of course be the usual hysterical debate between those
> prone to view the riots as a matter of pure, unbridled and inexcusable
> criminality, and those anxious to contextualize events against a
> background of bad policing; continuing racism and unjustified
> persecution of youths and minorities; mass unemployment of the young;
> burgeoning social deprivation; and a mindless politics of austerity
> that has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with the
> perpetuation and consolidation of personal wealth and power. Some may
> even get around to condemning the meaningless and alienating qualities
> of so many jobs and so much of daily life in the midst of immense but
> unevenly distributed potentiality for human flourishing.
>
> If we are lucky, we will have commissions and reports to say all over
> again what was said of Brixton and Toxteth in the Thatcher years. I
> say ‘lucky’ because the feral instincts of the current Prime Minister
> seem more attuned to turn on the water cannons, to call in the tear
> gas brigade and use the rubber bullets while pontificating unctuously
> about the loss of moral compass, the decline of civility and the sad
> deterioration of family values and discipline among errant youths.
>
> But the problem is that we live in a society where capitalism itself
> has become rampantly feral. Feral politicians cheat on their expenses,
> feral bankers plunder the public purse for all its worth, CEOs, hedge
> fund operators and private equity geniuses loot the world of wealth,
> telephone and credit card companies load mysterious charges on
> everyone’s bills, shopkeepers price gouge, and, at the drop of a hat
> swindlers and scam artists get to practice three-card monte right up
> into the highest echelons of the corporate and political world.
>
> A political economy of mass dispossession, of predatory practices to
> the point of daylight robbery, particularly of the poor and the
> vulnerable, the unsophisticated and the legally unprotected, has
> become the order of the day. Does anyone believe it is possible to
> find an honest capitalist, an honest banker, an honest politician, an
> honest shopkeeper or an honest police commisioner any more? Yes, they
> do exist. But only as a minority that everyone else regards as stupid.
> Get smart. Get Easy Profits. Defraud and steal! The odds of getting
> caught are low. And in any case there are plenty of ways to shield
> personal wealth from the costs of corporate malfeasance.
>
> What I say may sound shocking. Most of us don’t see it because we
> don’t want to. Certainly no politician dare say it and the press would
> only print it to heap scorn upon the sayer. But my guess is that every
> street rioter knows exactly what I mean. They are only doing what
> everyone else is doing, though in a different way – more blatently and
> visibly in the streets. Thatcherism unchained the feral instincts of
> capitalism (the “animal spirits” of the entreprenuer they coyly named
> it) and nothing has transpired to curb them since. Slash and burn is
> now openly the motto of the ruling classes pretty much everywhere.
>
> This is the new normal in which we live. This is what the next grand
> commission of enquiry should address. Everyone, not just the rioters,
> should be held to account. Feral capitalism should be put on trial for
> crimes against humanity as well as for crimes against nature.
>
> Sadly, this is what these mindless rioters cannot see or demand.
> Everything conspires to prevent us from seeing and demanding it also.
> This is why political power so hastily dons the robes of superior
> morality and unctuous reason so that no one might see it as so nakedly
> corrupt and stupidly irrational.
>
> But there are various glimmers of hope and Light around the world. The
> indignadosmovements in Spain and Greece, the revolutionary impulses in
> Latin America, the peasant movements in Asia, are all beginning to see
> through the vast scam that a predatory and feral global capitalism has
> unleashed upon the world. What will it take for the rest of us to see
> and act upon it? How can we begin all over again? What direction
> should we take? The answers are not easy. But one thing we do know for
> certain: we can only get to the right answers by asking the right
> questions.
>
> —
> David Harvey is Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the
> City University of New York. His latest book is  The Enigma of
> Capital, and the Crises of Capitalism.
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "RepublicanSocialistConvention" group.
> To post to this group, send email to
> [log in to unmask]
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> [log in to unmask]
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/republicansocialistconvention?hl=en.
>




Companies Act 2006 : http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/companyinfo